Death . . .

A
Final
Frontier


by
Alex

Hutchins

As a boy, I attended the funeral of my great grandfather; although, I remember very little about the event other than he had thick, uncut and rippled toenails the last time I saw him when the family visited him in the hospital in Winston-Salem.  He did not know who I was and made no acknowledgement that I was there visiting with my parents.

A few years later and still a boy, I attended the funeral of my grandmother; although, there too I remember very little other than visiting her at the rest home after she had had a seizure while staying in the guest room of our home. She also did not know who I was and made no acknowledgement that I was there visiting with my mother, her daughter.

Several years later as a married man, I attended the funeral of my grandfather (on my father’s side) and recall quite vividly the graveyard ceremonies as did I recall the same in 2002 when my father died that left me remembering only the good times that we had shared and there were many, like having him read me a bedtime story and hearing his voice change with each character, or vacationing at the Outer Banks and standing on his bent knee as the waves crashed around us, or having him sitting in the audience during my first marriage and at my Graduate School graduation.

But that was 10 years ago and much older am I now or so it seems for any person over 60 and wonder what all these deaths that I recall have actually left behind? 

It is not their education nor is it their accomplishments.

It is neither who they married nor the children they raised.

It is not their faith or under what circumstances they died.

It is simply the fact that they lived, albeit briefly, on this earth and the lessons that they may have learned.

How strange it is to hear me write and say these words but for me at least, it is true.

Once each of us has died and after a few brief years, much of who we were will have dissipated into the atmosphere, never again (or seldom) to reappear into the minds of men (or females). 

That fact is neither good nor bad nor sad; it is simply true.

How many people really care that J. Edgar Hoover or John F. Kennedy had buildings named after them?  And, while it is true that we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy each year do his accomplishments still have the same impact on society as a whole, not matter how much we would like to think it does?  Do we fully grasp the significance and the sacrifices our Founding Fathers had to endure so that we, as Americans, could still enjoy freedom today?

Our lives here on earth are not to provide the rest of the world with our accomplishments but to provide us with the courage to move into a new frontier. 

Like you, I can speculate but really have no idea as what to expect in this new frontier other than, it will be my responsibility to make the most of what I find.